DADDY, DARLING

DADDY, DARLING

Teenager Katja (Helli Louise, CARRY ON BEHIND; HARDCORE) excitedly hugs her father Eric (Ole Wisborg, WHAT A PITY ABOUT DADDY) when he returns home from his latest business trip. Acknowledging that he's had to work away a lot since her mother's death, Eric suggests that his secretary Svea (Gio Petre, ANN AND EVE) could pop in and check on Katja from time to time.

Katja hates the idea - she has no time for Svea, as she suspects Svea is keen to bed her dad.

While Katja spends the night at her friend Lise's house, we learn that Svea is already in a serious relationship with the father. Eric confesses to Svea that he has tried to tell Katja of their love several times, but keeps losing the courage to do so. He vows to tell her soon, then gets down to business with his woman.

Meanwhile, Lise (Kyo Feza) tells Katja about her widowed mother sleeping with their lodger. Katja is shocked to discover that Lise has no problem with this - Katja insists that her father would never need another woman as he has her for constant company. But Lise points out that Katja's not there with him at that moment in time …

The following morning Katja returns home and feigns illness, excusing herself and rushing up the stairs. She sneaks into her father's room and searches for any trace of a woman. Relieved that she can't find any such evidence, Katja returns downstairs bubbling, giving Eric a tender hug.

After a pleasant afternoon boating with her dad, Katja showers and prepares for bed - but then she remembers something Lise had told her the previous evening: that she knows of lots of girls who have slept with their father. This inspires Katja to don a sexy nightgown and enter Eric's bedroom.

The father is baffled by Katja's behaviour and sternly advises "that's the sort of thing a woman wears on her wedding night", before refusing Katja's pleas to sleep beside him and reminding her that she's not a little girl anymore. She consoles herself by retiring to her own bed and having a lurid dream about him.

It gets worse for Katja the following day when Eric tells her he's going away again. What's more, she discovers that he's going to marry Svea while he's away! Confused and feeling rejected, Katja moves to Lise's for a while. It's here that she witnesses Lise getting it on with her young boyfriend Lars (Soren Stromberg, AGENT 69; BETWEEN THE SHEETS).

Keeping out of her newlywed father's way isn't easy for Katja, leading to a close encounter with a lesbian art teacher and a dalliance of her own with Lars. Eventually she returns home with a seemingly fresh attitude towards Svea. But what is Katja's motive for being so nice to her new stepmother, and what will the price of her actions be?

Joe Sarno's name is synonymous with early 1970's softcore erotica, and they don't come much softer than this. The sex and nudity are in short supply, with Sarno (BUTTERFLIES; BABY LOVE; DEEP THROAT 2) instead favouring a slow-burning storyline that plays like a semi-tragic soap opera.

Now and again we'll get some ample, natural breasts or a glimpse of a nicely rounded female bottom, but the gaps in-between may alienate the raincoat brigade - this is a film with serious intentions, and the nudity is there almost as an afterthought. There isn't even any bush in sight!

Performances from the largely Swedish cast are mostly flat and curiously unappealing. But the storyline takes a contentious subject matter and thankfully refuses to confront it head-on, instead attempting to analyse the confused emotions of a vulnerable teen who doesn't yet fully understand that the only man who has ever shown her love, is capable of loving women in a different way.

The scene where Katja tries to seduce Eric, then when rejected begs simply to lie near him, is intelligently portrayed - it suggests that Katja is less of a manipulative seductress, but more of a naïve and misguided adolescent who has taken her friend's comments out of context and made a fool of herself unwittingly. Kudos to Sarno too for bucking the trend and making the stepmother actually a nice person.

Elsewhere however, Sarno's direction is flat in a TV movie-type way, albeit it keeps the story ticking over in a tightly edited and quietly engrossing manner.

While not the exploitation fest it's title, cover artwork or theme suggest, DADDY, DARLING is a surprisingly well-intended study of the multi-layers of love and where the boundaries lie. It's just a little bit dull too (and long, at 95 minutes).

The film is presented uncut in it's original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for 16x9 TV sets.

A disclaimer on the disc warns that the transfer is the best that could be mustered from the worn source material available. While the presentation does indeed bear evidence of specks and vertical lines (at times, many), it has to be said that these aren't a major distraction. Images are clear and bright, with good colour and contrast balance.

Considering the film's age (38 years and counting) and the fact that many Sarno films seem doomed to remain lost forever, I thought the presentation was more than acceptable.

The English mono audio track is a loud, clear and hiss-free affair throughout.

Although there is no scene-selection menu, you can use your remote control handset to navigate through the film if needs be, by way of 13 chapters.

The main extra on the disc is a highly watchable 16-minute featurette including new interviews with Sarno, producer Kenn Collins and Peggy Stephans, who was in charge of wardrobe during production.

Collins is very well-spoken and has a great memory, as does Sarno who remembers the Denmark-based shoot fondly. Collins and Stephans speak favourably about their time working with Sarno, as well as recalling the cast.

Elsewhere we get trailers for CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE, A TOUCH OF GENIE (other discs have contained the 'hard' trailer for GENIE, but this one offers the 'soft' version), ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN and a 4 minute celebration of Alternative Cinema's championing of Sarno's films - both in the form of remastered editions of his originals and their own low-budget remakes - entitled RETRO RESTORATION DOCUMENTARY.

Finally, there's an 8-page booklet with interesting liner notes from Michael J Bowen. As well as offering insight into the film's shoot, Bowen sheds light on it's controversial theme (heck, as tame as it is, DADDY, DARLING was originally refused a UK theatrical release by the BBFC back in 1970) and further explains how we're lucky to see this film at all, asking us to forgive the less than spotless transfer.

The book also includes a brief photographic comparison to show how much the image quality has been improved by the DVD's new telecine transfer.

DADDY, DARLING is an Autumnal, melancholic study of confused emotions and coming of age. It sounds like shocking exploitation on paper, but anyone looking for such cheap thrills may be disappointed by the film's sobriety.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Retro-Seduction Cinema
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
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